Then it was onto our bikes for our longest day of riding. We wandered through the villages and back lanes of the Mekong Delta, stopping whenever we saw something interesting. We stopped at a "factory" where they put coconut husks through a shredder to make feed for animals. They also weave longer strands into rope. We also stopped at a rice mill. We passed an elementary school during recess and stopped to make friends with the children.
Merchants in the same business are all located on the same street to make it easy for customers to comparison shop. We rode through the nursery section. Besides plants and flowers, there were several topiary sellers with topiary gazebos, animals, and even an Eiffel Tower. Below are two topiary dragons.
We passed a few churches and stopped at this one which turned out to be a convent with 150 Vietnamese sisters. We loved the forest scene in the back. I'm not sure what they are made of, but the animals are not real.
We rode 35 kilometers before lunch. After another seven course "typical" Vietnamese lunch, we took off for another 25. In the afternoon ride, we finally got away from the villages and markets to the lush rice paddies. It was a beautiful ride until a late afternoon downpour. We waited it out for half an hour and when it seemed to let up, got back on for the last seven kilometers, all except the two Indian/New Zealand doctors. They rode the bus while the rest of us rode in a light drizzle just so we could say we went the whole 60 kilometers. Any coincidence that the two most highly educated people in the group knew enough to come in out of the rain?
Then we took the bus to Can Tho, a city of one and a half million that is the main city of the Mekong Delta.
Checking out the soccer skills of the little guys for future recruitment?
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